Architects

Studio Crowley Hall

Ratings

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?%

? out of 1 recommended

Consumer Comments for Studio Crowley Hall

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Consumer
from WASHINGTON, DCMar 11, 2012

Not Recommended

They planned a gut renovation of an old home we bought in June 2007 which , including everything: new electrical wires, new plumbing, dry walls,new roof, new dormers, installing 4.5 bathrooms, new kitchen, finishing the basement and the attic . The architects job was: phase 1- to design and submit the drawings to the DCRA, and phase 2- to work with the contractor, follow up and supervise the process of the renovation. We signed a FIXED COST contract with them for phase 2 but they billed us by their hourly input, the moment the total fees reached the fixed cost amount agreed upon in the contract- they started to ask for more payments as if we never signed a fixed cost contract. .. when we refused to pay them -they stopped to answer emails/phone calls which means they simply walked away from the project not before collecting 98% of their fees !

Afterwards we found out that we were not the only ones that had been taken by this studio. We have spoken with 4 other homeowners that had a very similar experience with them.

The initial drawings, which took them three months to draw , were poorly designed with very little imagination and nothing in it met our specific requests. We had to ask them, more than once, to change the design according to our requests/ideas until they actually did so. The schedule they proposed was unrealistic; 6 months vs the actual schedule that was 18 months. when we asked them to offer us items like sinks/bathtubs etc' -their selection was very limited, repetitive and not updated -they kept offering us the same items all the time even though it didn't match our specification.

Fairly quickly we found out they made huge mistakes of several feet that some of them were- luckly -caught on time by the contractor. Some other big mistakes led to further problems such as having to reorder a doors and windows which added on $10,000 more in fees or a toilet that sits under the roof where we can't stand up straight if we want to use it.... another critical mistake was when they specified wooden windows inside the shower ! which obviously didn't work and we had to install glass panels that added another 10k to the cost.

In general, they showed a lack of professionalism ,very limited creativity, lack of responsibility ; they never admitted their huge mistakes nor apologized .On the top of it, they were financially dishonest.

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